I agree. Instead of partake many different activities, med school like applicants who accomplished some thing in their ECs. Like you can find a vlog on youtube, the guy is an accomplished gymnast. He had low GPA, but he was able to get in a MD school. If it is a research, they like you take the project from soup to nuts all by yourself, including the proposal and funding.
My cousin she was captain of the swimming team in HS and 4 years in Yale, along with her flawless stats, she was admitted in many tier 1 med schools, including Harvard.
I think what @thumper1 may be trying to suggest is to have a central theme or two to your ECs, not just a checklist of stuff you’ve done.
For example, D2 did neuroscience research in the cognition of mathematics (>2000 hours + senior thesis), did a summer research program that developed mathematical models to predict outcome of various glioma treatment protocols, did on-on-one mentoring w/mentally ill teenagers, tutored autistic teenagers in math, coached a high school math competition team at an under-achieving high school, volunteered in the neuro rehab ward with TBI patients, did volunteer therapeutic counseling w/elementary school aged victims of gun violence, TA-ed calc for 4 years… <—are you seeing a common theme?
D1–the competitive climber–became a wilderness certified AEMT and volunteered with the local mountain search and rescue team. She also volunteered in the ED and in the psych ED and spent 6 months as a volunteer EMT in the EDs of inner city township hospitals of South Africa. She centered her other ECs around her physics & math degree–she TA-ed calc & P-chem, did medium energy particle beam research, taught acoustics at her university for a semester and remedial math at the local CC, tutored at risk inner-city high school students in math, physics & chemistry.
Thank you @WayOutWestMom
My point is…having a huge and varied laundry list of ECs is not as importent, it seems, as having some related and focused ones.
The OP has a ton of worthwhile ECs…but I’m not clear what his focus is…it reads like he was just trying to accumulate lots and lots of different kinds of experiences…and that is fine for those who don’t know what they intend to do.
But my impression is that DO and Med schools want commitment to something with a strong of relatedness…that ties in with medicine.
@purplerocketman
Sorry to be repetitive
There’s a saying about med school application process that one’s stats will get one to the door, but it’s the rest of the application that will get one through the door. Med schools will first ask themselves if an applicant can cut it academically. As the application process is opaque, it’s impossible to weigh how any one adcom/school will view an applicant’s ECs, LoRs, PS, secondary essay, interview. But at least with help of MSAR data, one can answer a question about one’s chances with a straight face by comparing an applicant’s stats to MSAR data and saying you probably have/don’t have a chance at a particular school.
Here as to MCAT: to say if “I were to get an exceptional score on my MCAT…” (#34), or “do very well on MCAT” (#32), it’s great you have hope, but even the best test takers can have a bad day, or a bad section score that can end their chances. Speculation about one’s chances without MCAT score is useless to you. As to your GPAs: ~3.5 sGpa: ~3.4 (#1), you acknowledge and others have mentioned, you are not competitive stats wise. It may be somewhat more helpful in answering your chances question if you could provide info on what specific courses/grades you took to earn these GPAs, and what courses you are planning to take by graduation. But again without MCAT, it’s a disservice to you to endlessly speculate based on ECs whose weight varies from school to school. It does come across that you think ECs/hours are just boxes to be checked. Med schools look in ECs, LoRs, PS, secondary essay, interview to show an applicant has attributes adcoms believe MDs should have (eg compassion, altruism, compassion, etc).
If you’re dead set on MD/DO, keep working hard to raise GPAs, think about and be prepared to articulate in person or on an essay why those experiences helped you choose medicine as a career, and come back with an MCAT score. Good luck
Random thought if you follow UCLA admission advice (#32) what major would you change to? Would new major have several science courses to help raise sGPA?
@purplerocketman
Have you actually already taken the MCAT or is this a hopeful projected score?
What is your current GPA…not a guesstimate of what you hope it will be when you apply?
I’m curious why your advisor says you should switch majors. Why can’t you just take the prerequisite to apply to Med schools courses with your current major?
I’m seeing some red flags: “but received C’s in each quarter of the gen chem series . . . And as far as the MCAT goes, that is just another reason why I would want to do a fifth year or 2 gap years… to allow myself an entire summer to study for it.”
In addition, all your extracurriculars read more like a business major, not a future physician. Appears you have way too many extracurriculars to be focused on med school.
Most people study for the MCAT while they are in undergraduate classes. Your ACT was also low and that is concerning. Med school students are expert test-takers and high academic experts. My physician husband says that most pre-med students never make it to med school.
My advice to you is to interview med students and DO students for more information on their stats and resumes before planning for 2 gap years to study for the MCAT because a person shouldn’t have to study for two years to do well enough on the MCAT. See if your GPA and scores are in the range for acceptance.
I have a question on clinical experiences and volunteering. My kid is currently a sophomore intending on med school. Good gpa (3.9), 34 ACT. His school has a volunteer opportunity where they spend a semester training kids to be EMT’s and then they have to volunteer on campus being an EMT on call around 40 hours a month for the remainder of their time at school. Is that adequate clinical experience or should his goal to be working in a hospital or clinic setting?
Get certified as EMT and working EMT on campus are great clinical experience. As for “adequate”, there is no set rule. Volunteering in hospital or clinic in summers are great alternative.
@threebeans
While EMT training and experience is a great clinical experience (D1 was a AEMT with Mountain Search & Rescue), it’s also a very limited experience. Adcomms typically advise EMTs to get other clinical exposure as well.
(Part of the purpose of clinical experience is observe the doctor-patient relationship. Campus EMTs get shut out once the ambulance crews arrives so they don’t actually get to see what any of the doctor-patient relationship or even happens with the patient after they get loaded on the ambulance. Campus EMTs are not allowed to ride with patients on an ambulance due to liability issues and lack of jurisdiction. Ambulance service EMTs take over patient management. I know this because of D’s experience w/ campus EMTs. She dislocated her kneecap one evening while visiting a friend’s dorm room, campus EMTs responded, but it was the ambulance service EMTs who examined her, placed her an a stretcher, carried her down 3 flights of stairs, took her to the ER and interacted with triage/assessment team. )
On-call time cannot be counted as clinical experience hours–only those hours when actively engaged on call outs.
Your views are so helpful. What do you think about volunteering as an EMT in a firehouse near campus as part of clinical hours?
@MomLA2018
It’s a fine clinical EC–assuming that the local fire dept will allow student EMT volunteers. In larger town and cities, the fire dept is manned by professionals, with no volunteers allowed due to city regulations and insurance concerns.